Facebook’s New Iowa Data Center Will Run on 100% Wind Power

Facebook just announced that its new data center in Iowa will be powered entirely by renewable energy. Projected to open in 2014, the data center will be accompanied by a brand new wind farm that will produce enough energy to completely power the complex. The social media company has partnered with MidAmerican Energy to offset the power the new data center will need.

The new Facebook data center is scheduled to open in Altoona, Iowa in 2014, and it will be powered by the grid until the new wind farm launches in 2015. Facebook won’t own the wind farm itself, but it will pay local utilities for the renewable energy.

The company sought to power their fourth data center with clean energy to match the efforts of its data center in Lulea, Sweden, which is also run on renewable energy. The new wind farm will be operated by MidAmerican Energy and located in Wellsburg, Iowa. The farm will product 138 MW of wind energy, which is projected to be more than the new Facebook data center will need. Aside from being run with 100% wind energy, the new data center will utilize a range of energy efficiency strategies to reduce its environmental footprint.